Steve Yzerman saw it, Derek Lalonde saw it. Dylan Larkin, on many nights this season, felt it: the Red Wings got pushed around by their opponents.
"There were plenty of times this year, I felt, that guys took liberties, whoever it was on the other team. If they’re tough guys, they kind of had free nights," Larkin said Tuesday, reflecting on the Wings' seventh straight season missing the playoffs. "I think that’s something that needs to be addressed, to have an answer to that."
For as much as the Red Wings improved this season, they were still too easy to play against. Larkin and Lalonde would both point to those two games in Ottawa in late February. Just when they thought they were chasing a playoff spot, the Wings were bullied by a division rival in a pair of playoff-like games. It was a cold dose of reality for a team that still has lots of growing-up to do.
Asked about the Red Wings' abrasiveness, Lalonde said, "That’s an area that needs to improve."
"There were times that we had good pushback and we were more engaged and it probably led to better performances," said Lalonde. "But there were times that we got pushed around. The Ottawa series, that’s a reality. In those two games, we got pushed around without pushing back much.
"I think it can be learned within the group. Again, I think it’s today’s NHL. You don’t need to go fight four times (every game) or fight after every whistle, but you do need to stand up for teammates and push back. So that’s another area that we’ll try to improve upon, either within our group or through free agency."
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Physicality and toughness aren't the same thing, and the latter is especially broad. Regarding the former, the Red Wings don't have enough players willing to throw their bodies around. Moritz Seider led the team in hits (and blocked shots, speaking of toughness) and is a constant physical presence. But the Wings didn't have a forward who ranked among the NHL's top 70 players in hits, and their leading forward in this department, Adam Erne, spent a chunk of the season in Grand Rapids and likely won't be back. Third on the team in hits was Joe Veleno.
"You can’t have Mo Seider having to step up and look over his shoulder all night," said Larkin.
Ben Chiarot added some firmness to Detroit's blueline behind Seider. He's the one who stepped up and fought Ryan Reaves that night in Minnesota after one of the NHL's biggest, baddest players had laid out Filip Hronek. But it wasn't until after Reaves had also laid out Gustav Lindstrom that anyone on the Red Wings thought to do anything. As a group, they need to summon more snarl.
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Up front, a player like Michael Rasmussen can help the Wings be harder to play against. It wasn't a coincidence that their playoff push fizzled out as soon as he went down for the season with a knee injury. Rasmussen was emerging as a heavy, puck-hounding forward who used his big frame to create space for himself and his teammates. Look around the playoffs and you'll see players like that in every lineup.
"We gotta be a more physical team, we gotta be a more competitive team," Yzerman said. "That doesn’t necessarily mean I gotta go get somebody 6’6, 250 to go out and beat people up. You have to win puck battles, block shots, win face-offs. All those little things make your team more competitive."
The Wings did take better care of the puck this season, one of the NHL's least culpable teams in giveaways. But it should bother them that they didn't claw many pucks back, third to last in takeaways. Maybe an arbitrary stat dictated by systems, but all but one of the bottom seven teams in takeaways missed the playoffs and all but one of the top seven teams made them. So maybe not.
Yzerman said he'll "try to add different components" of competitiveness to the Wings' roster "as we move along." He also said, "That goes with the group that we have. The guys here, it’s incumbent on them to be more competitive as well, if we want to make the playoffs, if we want to win Stanley Cups, we gotta play harder."
Take it from one of the only players on their roster who has won a Stanley Cup -- and one of the NHL's noted pests. When David Perron was asked where he wants to see the Red Wings improve next season, he said, "I would like to see us play with more bite."
"Just get in guys' faces, and yeah, maybe it's getting more physical players, but I’m not sure it’s only that," said Perron, a 15-year vet who's played in more than 100 playoff games. "I think it’s gotta come from within."
Perron pointed to a player like Lucas Raymond: "I do believe he plays his best when he’s feisty and he's emotional a little bit." He said, as a team, the Wings have to be more willing to "flirt with that line of too much emotion and not enough and keep pushing for the right standard for whatever night is front of us." No one would ever define Perron as a physical presence, but he's long been one of the NHL's peskiest opponents. He plays with spunk.
"As guys, we need to all increase that," said Perron, who was second on the Wings in takeaways (Larkin was first) and seventh in hits.
Another internal player who could help is Veleno. Perron admitted that when he first skated with Veleno last summer, "I didn't know where he was supposed to fit in our lineup." By the end of the season, Veleno had carved out a role as a bottom-six center with the speed and scrappiness to disrupt the opponent.
"I don’t know if he will get to a top-flight offensive player, but at the same time, what he can do is skate and be hard to play against and we’ve seen some physical play out of him. I see it in the room, how he wants to keep getting better," said Perron.
As Yzerman said, "Competitiveness is very broad." There are multiple ways to define it in a hockey player. It's not strictly fights or hits or penalty minutes, especially in today's NHL where talent reigns supreme. In terms of sacrifice, give the Red Wings credit for eating pucks all season long. They finished just outside the top-10 teams in blocked shots. That's certainly part of competing.
Still, they need to be more physically engaged moving forward. They need to be eager to assert themselves, not just willing to respond. There can't be any more "free nights" for the tough guys on the other bench. To make an imprint on the game, sometimes you have to leave your mark on the opponent.
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